These screencaps were posted by GM Leigh (of Mage Productions) on Twitter after being showed on WotC's Twitch stream, presented by Kate Welch and Nathan Stewart. Note the old Saltmarsh trilogy references!
So the only metric is success in the marketplace?
For determining the right course of action for a company?
Yup.
SCAG is fine. It was a decent player’s guide to the Realms with a smattering of new content and introduction to the gods. It did exactly what you expected based on the name and did it well.For the company, possibly, though not totally---there are lots of ways to jack sales figures up in the short run that hurt medium to long term.
For consumers? Not so much. I don't see why I should really care overly much.
By that metric alone, McDonald's is the master of a good burger and Britney Spears produced good music.
This. I want to see more products like SCAG and fewer like XGtE and MToF. Unfortunately, it seems like that's just not going to happen.Honestly, I think SCAG is a better and more solid product than XGtE and its endless pages of random names and magic item tables that should have been PDFs. And it’s certainly better than MToF, which was an unfocused mess.
SCAG is fine. It was a decent player’s guide to the Realms with a smattering of new content and introduction to the gods. It did exactly what you expected based on the name and did it well.
My comments now mirror my comments when I first reviewed the book:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...-Guide/page2&p=6750399&viewfull=1#post6750399
It’s only “flaw” just that it wasn’t the “giant book of unnecessary amounts of splat” people expected after 3e and 4e player centric books. The problem wasn’t SCAG, but the expectations of the fans.
Honestly, I think SCAG is a better and more solid product than XGtE and its endless pages of random names and magic item tables that should have been PDFs. And it’s certainly better than MToF, which was an unfocused mess.
The giant splatbooks of options didn’t help 3e last a long time or make the game more fun at the table. Or 3.5e. Or 4e. Or Pathfinder. They don’t make the game easier for new players. I don’t see doing that same thing again for the fourth time as being a measure of success.
This. I want to see more products like SCAG and fewer like XGtE and MToF. Unfortunately, it seems like that's just not going to happen.
For determining the right course of action for a company?
Yup.
Well, quite simply, Option 2 has meant making more money.
I mean, good grief, one of the Bay Transformers movies probably made more money than the entire run of the 80's Transformers movies. ((Note, I don't know that, but, at a guess, it's probably not far off))
The bigger issue in my mind is that "original fans" haven't a clue about who the fans of a product actually are. Take Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The biggest fans of the product weren't people who read the comics or played the RPG or even watched the cartoon. No. The biggest fans were 2-3 years old. THAT'S what TMNT was for. So, when they came out with the kiddified TMNT movies in the 80's, older fans were flabbergasted. How could they make our glorious stories so stupid? Don't they understand who the fans of TMNT are?
Turns out, yup, they knew EXACTLY who the fans were and made buckets of money off of toys and whatnot. The movies were just 2 hour advertisements for toys.
I mean, seriously, how can you really point to Michael Bay and say that he did things wrong? He made Transformers into a household name and made all the money possible doing so. How is that not a good thing.
Or, put it this way. If the Transformers movies had not done so well, or only as well as the old 1986 movie, which, while held up by Transformers fans as a great thing, absolutely tanked, we'd have gotten six movies and now a Bumblebee spin off?
I'm sorry, but the idea that there are other metrics for a company other than making profit is the fastest way to bankruptcy.